Podcasts

The Callie Crossley Show

A production of

Thurs., 2/2/12Big Men on Campus

Big Men on Campus

We’re looking at race relations by way of the new book, Fraternity, by Diane Brady. In the wake of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination in 1968, Rev. John E. Brooks, an educator at the College of the Holy Cross, decided the college needed to recruit black students. Among the 20 black students Brooks recruited were Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, NFL wide receiver Eddie Jenkins, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Edward P. Jones, Wall Street executive Stanley Grayson, and defense attorney Ted Wells. "Fraternity" is a story of trust, with Father Brooks as the unifying force, who– to this day- is a mentor to these men. In the words of Ted Wells, the men were in college to learn the skills that would “destroy a sick society’’ and replace it with one dedicated to liberty and justice for all.

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ABOUT THE CALLIE CROSSLEY SHOW

Thursday, July 5, 2012

*Originally aired 11/02/12Walter Mosley on The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey

Late last year, Walter Mosley joined us to talk about his latest novel, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey. Mosley’s protagonist, Ptolemy Grey, is an old, ailing recluse living in a dump of a cluttered apartment. His mind, on a downward spiral of dementia, is equally cluttered with a mashup of memories: the death of his wife, the lynching of a friend, his service in World War II. Then everything changes when he’s offered a Faustian bargain—a drug that will restore his brain in exchange for a shorter life. He takes the plunge, hoping mental clarity will help him solve a murder. Though Mosley may be best known for detective novels, his writing spans all genres: literary fiction, science fiction, crime and social commentary. In The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, Mosely uses threads from all of these styles to tell the story of mortality and morality.